Mekhail Anwar, MD, PhD

Title(s)Professor, Radiation Oncology
SchoolSchool of Medicine
Phone415-514-2070
ORCID ORCID Icon0000-0002-6650-2594 Additional info
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    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse Education and Training
    University of California, San FranciscoM.D. Medicine
    Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPh.D.Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    University of California, BerkeleyMSElectrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    Collapse Awards and Honors
    National Institutes of Health2019NIH Trailblazer Award
    American Association for Cancer Research2019AACR-Novocure Career Development Award
    Department of Defense2015Prostate Cancer Research Program Physician Research Training Award
    American Society of Clinical Oncology2014ASCO Young Investigator Award
    Whitaker FoundationWhitaker Fellowship in Biomedical Engineering
    Department of DefenseNational Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship
    Radiological Society of North AmericaRoentgen Resident Research Award,
    UC San FranciscoCTSI T1 Catalyst Award Grant
    UC BerkeleyUniversity Medal
    UC San Francisco Cancer Center2016  - 2017Give Breast Cancer the Boot Award
    National Science FoundationNSF Graduate Fellowship
    UC San Francisco2017  - 2018The Cancer League Award

    Collapse Overview 
    Collapse Overview
    Mekhail Anwar, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, with expertise in electrical engineering focusing on integrated circuits and micro-fabricated sensors for cancer imaging with a clinical practice in Radiation Oncology specializing in the multimodality treatment of malignancies using focal, targeted radiation therapy.

    Dr. Anwar has over 13 years of experiences developing micro-fabricated devices for biomedical applications. Educated at UC Berkeley in Physics, where he was awarded the University Medal as the top graduating senior, he completed his medical degree at UC San Francisco, and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his Ph.D. in electrical engineering focused on using micro-fabricated devices and integrated circuits for biological detection. He has several first author publications spanning integrated circuits, imaging, and protein arrays. His clinical interest in oncology is using new techniques in imaging to guide therapeutic intervention, and he has clinical research efforts in, pancreatic, liver and prostate cancer as well as glioblastoma. His research focus is fundamentally guided by where innovations in diagnostic and treatment technologies can most benefit patient care.

    Research Focus

    The primary focus of his laboratory is to identify where gaps in diagnostic information and therapeutic tools compromise patient care, and develop tools to solve these problems, with an emphasis on sensing in the tumor microenvironment. Acutely aware of their limitation in spatially identifying microscopic disease, Dr. Anwar's solution is to embed sensors directly within the tumor and the neighboring microenvironment, to achieve increased sensitivity, guiding precise, focal therapy to enhance the efficacy of current treatments while mitigating toxicity. His work synergistically incorporates biological approaches with integrated circuit and micro-fabricated technologies, leveraging the advantages of biological systems (interface, detection, synthesis and release of ligands, etc.) with those of electronics (computation, analysis, communication and actuation) to solve problems in therapeutic and diagnostic oncology. This has the potential to introduce new curative paradigms in breast cancer therapy, as current imaging technology, both for staging, treatment planning and surveillance is limited to large foci of disease, and true microscopic metastasis and recurrence, which is potentially curable, often goes undetected.

    Collapse Research 
    Collapse Research Activities and Funding
    Implantable Nanophotonic Sensors for in Vivo Immunoresponse
    NIH DP2DE030713Sep 10, 2020 - Jun 30, 2025
    Role: Principal Investigator
    An Ultra-Thin Molecular Imaging Skin for Intraoperative Imaging of Microscopic Residual Disease in Cancer
    NIH R21EB027238Mar 1, 2019 - Jan 31, 2022
    Role: Principal Investigator
    An Interferometric CMOS DC-­-Terahertz Lab on a Chip Biosensor
    National Science Foudnation 1608958Jun 1, 2016 - May 29, 2019
    Role: Co-Principle Investigator
    The Development of a microfabricated Fluorescent Imager for Real-­- Time, Intraoperative Imaging of Microscopic Residual Disease in Breast Cancer
    Mary Kay Ash Foundation P0506430Jul 1, 2015 - Jun 30, 2017
    Role: Principle Investigator
    Identification of Microscopic Residual Disease in Prostate Cancer using in-­- vivo Microfabricated Sensors and Targeted Biologics
    UCSF Research Allocation Program Mar 1, 2015 - Jul 1, 2016
    Role: Principle Investigator
    Development of a Real-­-Time Intraoperative Fluorescent Imager for Microscopic Residual Tumor
    National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) UL1 TR000004 (Parent Grant)Apr 1, 2013 - Jun 1, 2015
    Role: Co-Principle Investigator
    Identification and Treatment of Microscopic Residual and Recurrent Disease in Prostate Cancer Using in Vivo Microfabricated Sensors and Targeted Biologics
    Department of Defense PC141609Oct 1, 2005 - Sep 30, 2019
    Role: Principle Investigator

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    Collapse Featured Publications

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    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse Publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    Altmetrics Details PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Factors Impacting Differential Outcomes in the Definitive Radiation Treatment of Anal Cancer Between HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Patients. Oncologist. 2020 09; 25(9):772-779. Susko M, Wang CJ, Lazar AA, Kim S, Laffan A, Feng M, Ko A, Venook AP, Atreya CE, Van Loon K, Anwar M. PMID: 32390297; PMCID: PMC7485368.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    2. Signal to Noise Ratio as a Cross-Platform Metric for Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging. Mol Imaging. 2020 Jan-Dec; 19:1536012120913693. Gharia A, Papageorgiou EP, Giverts S, Park C, Anwar M. PMID: 32238038; PMCID: PMC7139168.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    3. Chip-Scale Angle-Selective Imager for In Vivo Microscopic Cancer Detection. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2020 02; 14(1):91-103. Papageorgiou EP, Boser BE, Anwar M. PMID: 31831434; PMCID: PMC7800072.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 10     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    4. A 25 micron-thin microscope for imaging upconverting nanoparticles with NIR-I and NIR-II illumination. Theranostics. 2019; 9(26):8239-8252. Najafiaghdam H, Papageorgiou E, Torquato NA, Tian B, Cohen BE, Anwar M. PMID: 31754393; PMCID: PMC6857055.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    5. Socioeconomic disparities in timeliness of care and outcomes for anal cancer patients. Cancer Med. 2019 12; 8(17):7186-7196. Ahmad TR, Susko M, Lindquist K, Anwar M. PMID: 31595720; PMCID: PMC6885869.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    6. A multi-disciplinary model of survivorship care following definitive chemoradiation for anal cancer. BMC Cancer. 2019 Sep 11; 19(1):906. Savoie MB, Laffan A, Brickman C, Daniels B, Levin A, Rowen T, Smith J, Van Blarigan EL, Hope TA, Berry-Lawhorn JM, Anwar M, Van Loon K. PMID: 31510960; PMCID: PMC6737598.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
    7. Low irradiance multiphoton imaging with alloyed lanthanide nanocrystals. Nat Commun. 2018 08 06; 9(1):3082. Tian B, Fernandez-Bravo A, Najafiaghdam H, Torquato NA, Altoe MVP, Teitelboim A, Tajon CA, Tian Y, Borys NJ, Barnard ES, Anwar M, Chan EM, Schuck PJ, Cohen BE. PMID: 30082844; PMCID: PMC6079005.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 30     Fields:    
    8. A high-throughput flow cytometry-on-a-CMOS platform for single-cell dielectric spectroscopy at microwave frequencies. Lab Chip. 2018 07 10; 18(14):2065-2076. Chien JC, Ameri A, Yeh EC, Killilea AN, Anwar M, Niknejad AM. PMID: 29872834.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 12     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    9. Real-time cancer detection with an integrated lensless fluorescence contact imager. Biomed Opt Express. 2018 Aug 01; 9(8):3607-3623. Papageorgiou EP, Zhang H, Giverts S, Park C, Boser BE, Anwar M. PMID: 30338143; PMCID: PMC6191610.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4  
    10. A Molecular Imaging "Skin A Time-resolving Intraoperative Imager for Microscopic Residual Cancer Detection Using Enhanced Upconverting Nanoparticles. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul; 2018:1-4. Najafiaghdam H, Papageorgiou P, Torquato NA, Tajon CA, Zhang H, Park C, Boser B, Cohen BE, Anwar M. PMID: 30440277.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    11. Imaging of IR700DX Labeled Mouse Breast Tumor Using a Custom Angle-Selective Fluorescence Contact Imaging System. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul; 2018:1-4. Papageorgiou EP, Giverts S, Zhang H, Park C, Boser BE, Anwar M. PMID: 30440261.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    12. Brain metastasis growth on preradiosurgical magnetic resonance imaging. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2018 Nov - Dec; 8(6):e369-e376. Garcia MA, Anwar M, Yu Y, Duriseti S, Merritt B, Nakamura J, Hess C, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott M, Sneed PK, Braunstein SE. PMID: 30174247.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 12     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    13. Influence of respiratory motion management technique on radiation pneumonitis risk with robotic stereotactic body radiation therapy. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2018 Jul; 19(4):48-57. Chapman CH, McGuinness C, Gottschalk AR, Yom SS, Garsa AA, Anwar M, Braunstein SE, Sudhyadhom A, Keall P, Descovich M. PMID: 29700954; PMCID: PMC6036380.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    14. Angle-insensitive amorphous silicon optical filter for fluorescence contact imaging. Opt Lett. 2018 Feb 01; 43(3):354-357. Papageorgiou EP, Zhang H, Boser BE, Park C, Anwar M. PMID: 29400857.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    
    15. Relationship between radiation dose and microbleed formation in patients with malignant glioma. Radiat Oncol. 2017 Aug 10; 12(1):126. Wahl M, Anwar M, Hess CP, Chang SM, Lupo JM. PMID: 28797254; PMCID: PMC5553662.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 12     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
    16. Identifying Voxels at Risk for Progression in Glioblastoma Based on Dosimetry, Physiologic and Metabolic MRI. Radiat Res. 2017 09; 188(3):303-313. Anwar M, Molinaro AM, Morin O, Chang SM, Haas-Kogan DA, Nelson SJ, Lupo JM. PMID: 28723274; PMCID: PMC5628052.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 9     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
    17. Respiration-Induced Intraorgan Deformation of the Liver: Implications for Treatment Planning in Patients Treated With Fiducial Tracking. Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2017 Dec; 16(6):776-782. Paulsson AK, Yom SS, Anwar M, Pinnaduwage D, Sudhyadhom A, Gottschalk AR, Chang AJ, Descovich M. PMID: 28071340; PMCID: PMC5762032.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    
    18. Delineation of radiation therapy target volumes for cutaneous malignancies involving the ophthalmic nerve (cranial nerve V-1) pathway. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2016 Nov - Dec; 6(6):e277-e281. Anwar M, Yu Y, Glastonbury CM, El-Sayed IH, Yom SS. PMID: 27687189.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    19. Outcomes of hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy boost for intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer. Radiat Oncol. 2016 Jan 21; 11:8. Anwar M, Weinberg V, Seymour Z, Hsu IJ, Roach M, Gottschalk AR. PMID: 26792201; PMCID: PMC4721063.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 19     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    20. Standardization and quality assurance of radiation therapy volumes for adults with high-grade gliomas. Semin Radiat Oncol. 2014 Oct; 24(4):259-64. Fogh S, Wahl M, Anwar M, Haas-Kogan D, Clarke JL, Sneed PK. PMID: 25219810.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    21. Hypofractionated SBRT versus conventionally fractionated EBRT for prostate cancer: comparison of PSA slope and nadir. Radiat Oncol. 2014 Feb 02; 9:42. Anwar M, Weinberg V, Chang AJ, Hsu IC, Roach M, Gottschalk A. PMID: 24484652; PMCID: PMC3923240.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 22     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    22. Role of endorectal MR imaging and MR spectroscopic imaging in defining treatable intraprostatic tumor foci in prostate cancer: quantitative analysis of imaging contour compared to whole-mount histopathology. Radiother Oncol. 2014 Feb; 110(2):303-8. Anwar M, Westphalen AC, Jung AJ, Noworolski SM, Simko JP, Kurhanewicz J, Roach M, Carroll PR, Coakley FV. PMID: 24444524; PMCID: PMC3969841.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 14     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    23. Role of stereotactic body radiotherapy in spinal metastasis and subsequent fracture risk: identifying and treating the at-risk patient. CNS Oncol. 2013 Sep; 2(5):437-45. Anwar M, Barani IJ. PMID: 25054666; PMCID: PMC6136102.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    24. Protein array patterning by diffusive gel stamping. PLoS One. 2012; 7(10):e46382. Anwar M, Gupta PB, Palaniapan R, Matsudaira P. PMID: 23071560; PMCID: PMC3468578.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Cells
    25. Magnetic resonance imaging of massive ovarian edema in pregnancy. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 2010 Nov-Dec; 34(6):865-7. Coakley FV, Anwar M, Poder L, Wang ZJ, Yeh BM, Joe BN. PMID: 21084901.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 8     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    26. Applied Physics Letters. A Wireless-Compatible CMOS-Based Optics-Free Microarray Imager. 2009; 94. Anwar, M., Aytur, T., Matsudaira, P.
    27. A novel magnetic bead bioassay platform using a microchip-based sensor for infectious disease diagnosis. J Immunol Methods. 2006 Jul 31; 314(1-2):21-9. Aytur T, Foley J, Anwar M, Boser B, Harris E, Beatty PR. PMID: 16842813.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 39     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
    28. Applied Physics Letters. Atomic force microscopy with time resolution of microseconds. 2005; 86(1):014101-014101-3. M Anwar, I Rousso.
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